Anti-Corruption fight continues... With less money

Anti-Corruption fight continues... With less money

Although it was the main campaign proposal of today's president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and one of the main reasons why most Mexicans gave him their vote -according to all post-electoral surveys-, the fight against corruption will be institutionally depleted in terms of the availability of resources.

The Chamber of Deputies, where the group in power (Morena) has a majority, approved 6,971.4 million pesos to combat this problem in the country during 2019, 9.7 percent lower than the one endorsed last year, when 7,720 million were allocated to this item, according to data from the Federal Expenditure Budget (PEF) for the period that is about to begin.

In the first year of government of Tabasco, the entities and agencies in charge of investigating, denouncing and punishing acts of corruption will have together the lowest budget of the last four years: since 2014, no less resources were allocated for this fight.

At that time, the legislators approved 6,352 million pesos together for the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF), the Ministry of Public Function (SFP), the Anticorruption Unit of the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the Federal Court of Administrative Justice (TFJA) and the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (at that time the National Anticorruption System was not yet created.)

On Sunday, the House of Representatives approved 2,304 million pesos for the ASF, which means an increase of 3.3 percent compared to what it received in 2018. The other entities in charge of the fight against corruption suffered a reduction of its resources with respect to this year, with the SFP being the most affected, going from 1,191 million pesos to only 901.8 million for 2019.

The Federal Court of Administrative Justice will handle 2 thousand 695 million pesos, equivalent to a decrease of 1.9 percent compared to 2018; the INAI will have 900.1 million pesos, which means a reduction of 14.7 percent.

In case these reductions of resources were not enough, the institutional fight against corruption has other adversities to be solved: first, the budget cut of 23.2 percent that will suffer the National Anti-Corruption System (SNA), and the pending appointments of the anti-corruption prosecutor and specialized magistrates who will judge corruption offenses.

According to the new Organic Law of the Attorney General of the Republic, the anti-corruption prosecutor will be appointed by the head of this dependency, while the appointment of magistrates is stalled in the Senate.

The good operation of the SNA remains pending since its creation in May 2015, when Congress approved various reforms to the Constitution so that these institutions could work effectively in the prevention, investigation, detection and punishment of administrative offenses or crimes related to acts of corruption, as well as in the monitoring and control of the way in which the other government institutions exercise the public resources assigned to them.

The main organ of the SNA is the Coordinating Committee, which is composed of the heads of the ASF, SFP, TFJA, INAI, Specialized Prosecutor's Office in Combat of Corruption, a representative of the Federal Judicial Council and another of the Citizen Participation Committee.

Ranking down

The measurements of Transparency International reflect year after year a decline of the country in the world ranking: in 2008, Mexico ranks 72 in terms of corruption; 10 years later, our country retreated to position 135 of 180 nations.

The latest national housing survey on corruption, carried out by Parametría, shows the desire and optimism of the population for corruption to diminish with the arrival of the new government: 68 percent of Mexicans believe that acts of corruption have increased in recent years, but by the following 12 months only 19 percent of respondents said that illegal acts of public servants will increase, while 30 percent think that they will decrease.

President López Obrador has indicated that he will not prosecute the acts of corruption of previous governments, except when there is ongoing investigations, but has again promised in recent days that he will end impunity from his administration, for example, in the case of theft of hydrocarbons, known as huachicoleo.

During the electoral campaign, the now-president never revealed what his institutional strategy would be to eradicate bribes and conflicts of interest in the federal government, nor did he talk about strengthening the institutions of the National Anticorruption System financially and with human resources, only declaring that this problem was going to end with the example, with his example.

"That to end corruption will be resolved because the president is not going to be corrupt, because corruption is from top to bottom," he said at a rally in Nuevo Leon on April 29.

Re: Anti-Corruption fight continues... With less money

@Canadiana

It almost looks to me like this may have been taken during the election? They seem to be at a rally and their shirts look like they read 'AMLO', as if they are going out to support and vote for him. But I don't know how much rallying AMLO did prior to that, such as if he had run for other offices prior that would bring him into contact with these two.

I believe they're still in prison, but this seems to indicate they may soon be released?

"Proceso magazine reported that it is possible that they will be released after the ruling of the First Collegiate Court of Tamaulipas on June 4."